- 45 films, including several National Award winning films, to be screened in the 3-day festival at Gaiety Theatre. 5 films from Himachal Pradesh also in the festival.
- A special segment of films and workshop for children and youth
- Entry Free for everyone
45 films, including several National Award winning films, to be screened in the 3-day festival at Gaiety Theatre. 5 films from Himachal Pradesh also in the festival.
Shimla: Critical environment and wildlife conservation issues to take centre stage in Woodpecker Film Festival to be organized from July 7-9, 2016 at Gaiety Theatre. The festival is a collaborative effort of WWF-India and New Delhi based think-tank CMSR Foundation and is supported by Department of Language, Art & Culture and Department of Forest, Himachal Pradesh Government. The festival will focus on issues like Climate Change, forest conservation, biodiversity, Man-animal conflict and will also showcase success stories from several parts of India.
According to Arti Gupta, Project coordinator (Shimla), WWF-India, “For over 40 years, WWF-India with its strong network across different geographical regions has been working tirelessly towards nature conservation. WWF – India’s mission is to stop the degradation of the planet’s natural environment and build a future in which humans live in harmony with nature and film festival like Woodpecker is an important and impactful way of communicating to the masses. Sitting in the lap of such a fragile ecosystem as the Himalayas it’s a small effort in spreading positive awareness towards environmental conservation.”
A special segment of films and workshop for children and youth
Sharing more about the festival, Narender Yadav, Festival Director, said, “Our festival’s vision is to showcase films that promote discussions, expand expectations, challenge attitudes and aims towards change lives. We are constantly experimenting to promote issue-based cinema globally. The objective behind having a film festival on environment and wildlife is to bring contemporary development issues at the centre of debate. Issues like environmental degradation, destruction of forest and wildlife, diminishing livelihood opportunities in rural India, climate change and related challenges etc need to be conveyed to common people to make them understand the gravity of contemporary environmental challenges in our country.”
- Prominent Films in the Festival:
The festival will screen 45 short films and documentaries. Prominent films among these are:
Film: India’s Wandering Lions | Director Praveen Singh and Martin Dohrn. Synopsis: After a brush with extinction, the Asiatic Lion is reclaiming its lost lands. But can lions and people truly settle their differences and live together without conflict? The movie tries to find the answer.
Film: God on the Edge| Director Ashok Patel. Synopsis: This National Award winning film focuses on man-animal (elephant) conflict.
Film: The Forgotten Tigers | Krishnendu Bose. Synopsis: Using, secret infrared night vision cameras and compelling found footage, the film brings some never seen images of tigers and leopards living on the edge of their habitat.
Film: Kutch – Fragile Frontier| Director Shanthi Chandola. Synopsis: The film is made on the backdrop of pictorial landscape of Kutch. It is an amazing tale of this place near the Arabian Sea and rich in wildlife.
Film: Changing Climate, Moving People| Director I Saransh Sugandh. Synopsis: The film looks at three regions in
Entry Free for everyone
India- Bundelkhand, Odisha and Uttarakhand which have been impacted by extreme weather events in recent times and the impact on the already existing migratory patterns out of these regions. How willing are our cities to make space for the old and new migrants?
Film: Baranaja: Twelve Seeds of Sustainability | Ritu Bhardwaj. Synopsis: The concept of Baranaja elucidates how traditional knowledge and organic farming can spell sustainability for millions of small-scale farmers working in climate sensitive communities across the globe.
Film: Shrinking Shores Ashish Rao. Synopsis: The film, ‘Shrinking Shores’ showcases the story of changing topography on the eastern coast of Odisha, India and emphasizes how global warming has affected the social and economic life of the people that reside there, apart from the catastrophic effect on the diverse ecosystem in the area.
Film: The Ritual| Director Sasmit Vasant Gadkar. Synopsis: In a draught ridden village when a Priest sees a village girl fruitlessly trying to fetch water from a tap, he is forced to rethink about a daily ritual.
- More About Woodpecker Film Festival
More About Woodpecker Film Festival
Woodpecker Film Festival and Forum is a globally acclaimed initiative aimed towards promoting issue-based cinema. Launched in the backdrop of the completion of 100 years of India Cinema, in 2013, the festival was a tribute to the Indian cinema for its ability to nurture diverse genres of films and filmmaking traditions in the country. The Festival and Forum, on one hand, aims to showcase the rich mélange of visual creativity in the country, and on the other, promote films, documentaries and advertisements focusing on socially pertinent themes like environment & wildlife, livelihoods, health, gender, education and children through this film festival.
(www.woodpeckerfilmfestival.in)
